Ideas for ext assess next year...please? (1 Viewer)

[cem]

How did you go in the HSC?



No, you need evidence.

You need evidence and an ability to answer the specific question asked.

Every year I read 100s of essays (I am a modern history marker) of students who have generic essay plans and even memorised essays that they try to fit into the question. Most come unstuck.

e.g. this years questions on Speer and Leni were different to past ones and students who couldn't adjust to the actual question didn't get the marks that their quantity of writing and obvious knowledge deserved. There were students who wrote two booklets on the second part of the questions who were getting 3 or 4 out of 10 due to not answering the question.


Also please know the time frames of your topics - writing outside the time frame of the syllabus or question is simply ignored and wastes your time.

Again returning to this years papers students who wrote about Speer or Leni pre 1918 or post 1945 got no credit due to the time-frame being outside the question and syllabus.


The time spent writing outside the time-frame of the question could have been better spent on other parts of the paper.

 

[xeuyrawp]

You need evidence and an ability to answer the specific question asked.

Of course, I didn't feel like I needed to be too verbose, when I was just responding to a stupd statement made by a poster.

Every year I read 100s of essays (I am a modern history marker) of students who have generic essay plans and even memorised essays that they try to fit into the question. Most come unstuck.

It's very true. Most people who try to remember essays end up forgetting obvious points. I looked at an essay on Ramses II which talked really in-depth about his building and propaganda, but it didn't even mention his most infamous campaign of Kadesh! The student had written out this huge essay, clearly without thinking about what s/he needed to actually say.

Also please know the time frames of your topics - writing outside the time frame of the syllabus or question is simply ignored and wastes your time.

Yep, it's very true. Also note that, if they ask you to write about period X, write about the whole period and give equal attention to parts that deserve analysis.

The time spent writing outside the time-frame of the question could have been better spent on other parts of the paper.

I think that a lot of students write outside a question because they feel they never know enough. They sit down, look at the question, and think 'well, I'll hedge my bets and talk about Speer pre 1918, so I have more to write about.' I think teachers don't tell students explicitly that anything that's outside of the question is literally ignored by the marker. They mayaswell spend their time expanding on relevant content.

 

[Hermzie]

I'm assuming your talking about the 'major work' here - you can really write about anything that interests you - you just have to give it that history twist where you use evidence to back up what you're saying. I've known people who were interested in the Japanese Geisha girls, so they did their essay on that. Some friends of mine are looking into writing about the Bermuda Triangle and other strange things that interest them.

 

[donkeydal]

could i do Fact or Fiction King Arthur? like did he really exist?

 

[hopeles5ly]

could i do Fact or Fiction King Arthur? like did he really exist?

yep you can. you might have to narrow down your research though, as it's pretty broad.

 

[xeuyrawp]

yep you can. you might have to narrow down your research though, as it's pretty broad.

Yeah. I think a good narrow question would be just on the archaeological evidence of Arthur -- most of the crap comes from Bardic tradition.